Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Alan Kelly will be the first speaker and he will have 20 minutes. He will be followed by Deputies David Cullinane and Catherine Connolly.

I have one question arising out of that because it is a matter that came across our desk in regard to another public body. It concerns the question of prepayments. The committee found that Dublin Institute of Technology lost in the order of €700,000 on prepayments in respect of a library contract. It thought it was dealing with a reputable international company and it so happened that was not quite the case. What level of credit check do the witnesses do in respect of organisations to which he makes prepayments because if they are gone, they are gone and they will not get them back? What kind of ongoing monitoring is done in that regard? When a contract is signed today that will run for a couple of years, it might be fine on the day the credit check is done and the contract is signed but where there is a prepayment system in place, there has to be some annual update of a credit check. Sometimes the published financial statements might provide hints. What system do the witnesses have in place in terms of security of prepayments if the supplier is not there to deliver the contract? Have the witnesses dealt with that yet?